2 quick notes : c4 dual statics singularity and eve connection issues

C4 second statics available

 Thanks to a reddit comment, the second statics for C4's are available on singularity.  I don't mind the idea of dual statics in concept, but then remembered the rumour that C4's might have one static going to shallow wormhole space (c1-3), and one going to deep wormhole space (c4-6).

Think of what pilot wants a C1 static.  What ships can fit in there, and the type of PVP trouble/fun they are likely to have.  Now think of what pilot might want a c5 or c6 static, what ships, and the type of PVP trouble/fun they are likely to have.

Now imagine you currently have a c1 static, and are now getting a c5 or c6 static.

I like the idea of wormhole space becoming more populated.  Just at this moment, I am not sure how this is going to work.  Oh well, there are new wormholes, and new skills to learn.

Eve is down.

Just in case you didn't notice.  Or if you didn't notice, then Eve is probably back up again.

Tranquility will be rebooted and placed in VIP mode at 12:20 while troubleshooting occurs. This is a third party networking issue, and we're working with our partners to resolve it. Please ensure your characters are out of harms way as soon as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.

https://twitter.com/EVE_status

http://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/2dbrj7/server_eve_status_if_you_have_issues_connecting/

There is a large network outage affecting many players.  CCP decided this was unfair to those that could not connect, so have taken the server down into VIP mode.  Understandable, if somewhat inconvenient.
14:48: CCP Falcon explains VIP mode:

Would you consider it fair if you logged in after massive connection issues that lasted for hours for thousands of people only to find that your enemy could connect the whole time, and had reinforced or destroyed a huge chunk of your infrastructure?
Thought not, hence VIP.
:Smile:

POS introduction

The first thing you need to know about setting up an industry POS, is that one day you will be attacked.  The second thing you will note is the number of offline POS that are scattered around our universe.

The games skills you should to have for a POS are:

• Corporation Management 1+
• Anchoring 4 (reduced in Cruis)
• Starbase Defense Management 4 with 5 being ideal.

You also need someone reliable to log in every month to make sure your POS has fuel.  I have seen far too many players set up a POS, put expensive loot into various arrays, then let the fuel run out.  No fuel means no forcefield.  No forcefield means your loot is at the hand's of the loot fairy very quickly.

Different POS are good for different tasks.

Caldari :

• Best CPU, good for industry
• ECM bonus, good for 'Dickstar'
• Worst powergrid, not so good for guns
• Bonused weapons are missiles requiring CPU.  CPU is unavailable if you are re-inforced, i.e. exactly the times you need weapons.  
• Fuel generally 5% more expensive than the others

 Amarr :

• Best powergrid, so best if you want a weapon heavy installation
• Worst CPU, not so good for industry

Gallente and Minmatar are middle of the road towers, with generally cheaper POS fuel.

A small tower of any type is cheap to run, and offers defence against a couple of bored frigates.  If you happen to be in highsec, Concord will protect your POS until you are wardecced, but that is about it.

A large tower, properly configured in any of the defensive strategies, is a harder nut to crack without dreadnoughts, so in Highsec or C1-C4 have a little more survivability.  Capital class ships are designed to break towers, and while a good configuration can delay and even assist in defence, your POS will want assistance.  I don't play in null, but if I know that Capitals to bad things to POS, I strongly suspect that Super Capitals are not kind either.

If you want to be attacked, have a small POS full of industry modules without any defences of any kind.  This applies in all areas of EVE.

The best defences that even a faction large tower can give you will not guarantee protection, but with the number of undersized and 'bravely' configured POS, it is fairly easy to become harder than the next POS over to attack.  Don't be the clearly rich, easiest target on the block.

With larger POS, comes increased fuel costs.  POS fuel is expensive.  In highsec, you will need 'charters' from the faction's space you are in.  These charters cost peanuts in comparison to POS fuel.

Assuming a highsec pure industry POS of whatever size and race, should have anchored the following items:

• Racial guns (unless Caldari) sufficient so that when you offline all industry, you can fill your powergrid with modules that don't use CPU.  That is, no room for missiles here.
• A Caldari tower should have a full set of another races weapons
• Small fast batteries are of 'situational' use (Small Pulse Laser Battery, Small Blaster Battery, Small Autocannon Battery).  Even smaller ships may be able to find places to attack your POS that these short range guns can't reach.
• Fill your offline guns with ammunition, covering as many damage types as your guns allow.  You may need to online guns, fill with ammo, then offline again.  This can be done from the safety of your POS forcefield
• There is no such thing as too many guns.  Guns (not missiles) can be onlined even when you are re-inforced.
• Shield hardening arrays.  Like most items in Eve, you have 2 resist holes; fill these first.
• Energy Neutralisers are 'expensive' (cpu/powergrid), but a few of these can mess up a logistics or Capital ship's day. 
• ECM, especially on a Caldari tower (bonused), covering all races

You want easy access to spares of all of the above. Strontium Clathrates gives you up to 41.7 hours time to realise you have a problem, depending on how much stront you fill your bay with.

If you are anywhere but highsec, you want a sizable portion of your above defences online.  Even in highsec, any spare powergrid should be filled with online guns.

As an 'order of magnitude' budget for an industry POS, as of mid 2014, for a T1 POS I would allow :

• Large POS : 1B setup plus 500M/month for fuel
• Medium POS : 500M setup plus 250M/month for fuel
• Small POS :250M setup plust 125M/month for fuel

Faction towers are more expensive initially, but have lower fuel requirements, and more shield/armor.  Faction modules are also available. Faction towers and modules are remarkable, as in I find myself asking corp members about these faction towers, and what they are hiding, so I can only wonder what they do to those that hunt POS.

As a disclaimer, I am not the foremost expert on attacking or defending POS.  I have been sieged and survived, and have blown up many offline POS.  I have read what has worked for others, and what has not worked.  I invite those that know better to share their wisdom, whether that be as comments or as links to other articles.


Other reading material:

• http://eve.1019.net/pos/ is a slightly out of date EFT like POS planner.  I use the Corporate Hanger Array to simulate a Personal Hanger array; the refining arrays are now called reprocessing arrays, and the Medium Intensive Refining array has become the new compression array.
• http://web.archive.org/web/20121002040835/http://talocanunited.com/wordpress/setting-up-your-pos-designing (Website sadly gone, but the way back machine to the rescue)
• http://vonkeigai.blogspot.com/2014/03/sieged.html
• http://localectomy.blogspot.com/2014/07/pos-nomenclature.html Language warning but still worth the read for two things : His description of the various POS setups, but also for what he looks for in targets.
• http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/POS_Setup, with some qualifications. Towers can be added to most highsec systems.  Standings are no longer required, but a player corporation at least a week old is needed to set up a POS.  I am also not certain I agree with all of the roles descriptions.

I intend to write a series on POS.  The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

POS based taxation

As many of you know, I run an industry corporation where strangers are invited.  I do so for profit: both yours and mine, or at least that is the intention. I have set up both Customs Offices and POS, renting access in various ways.

One of the previous ways I paid for fuel was via a game enforced tax on research facilities, very similar to the NPC charges in stations. This disappeared when Cruis was released.

I, and a few others, 'expressed our concerns' on the forums and to CSM representatives, both during beta testing on Singularity, and since going live.  When seeking a changed position : Polite, Firm, Reasonable are all desirable attributes, especially if you are one of a few wanting a change.  (Loud, organised and hysterical also work, but you need to have 'public opinion' on your side  as Jita riots and the Real Id issue from that other game showed).

However after a few hints, both from the forums and from Sugar Kyle (who I have been shamelessly pestering lately), I had another look. Reading official Crius issues forum would not hurt either.

On the Research and Manufacturing UI, choose facilities, Corp owned Facilities.  Right click and Configure Facility, and set the Tax accordingly.

In line with NPC station taxes the corp charges are simply a percentage on top of the existing charges. That is in my example below, the charge with 0% is 27,075; with 5% is 28,429.  The 5% additional charge is paid into the corp master wallet.

0% Corp Tax

5% Corp Tax

The installation charge is current taken from the default corporate wallet for the pilot. 
Currently we are set up with :

• One division for CEO/corporation
• 5 divisions allocated to pilots and their alts, allocated to those that wish to pay the rent.
• 1 division for 'communal' use. 

For research and manufacture, this communal use is still reasonably secure.  Put your blueprints and materials into the relevant facility.  Find out the cost, deposit that into the corp wallet and start job.  The job can only be delivered or cancelled by either the initiating pilot or a director/CEO.

CCP have good intentions that will pilot's to pay for industry out of their own wallet (*soon*), but pilots will still need access to a communal division for storage.

You can not see from the journal what pilot lodged a job.  The road to hell (and forum rages) is paved with good intentions.  For research and manufacture, this communal use is still reasonably secure.  If you have the patience (or possible the development skills and an API ), you can use the job history to tie the ISK payments to pilots.


Please note: all attached screenshots of any POS or blueprints listed are taken from Singularity, the test server. 

Crius : how to access your PI colonies

I had an 'eek' moment when I tried to access my PI on Sisi (the test server), and my previous shortcuts could not bring up my planets.  With Crius arriving 22 July 2014, some of you at least will likewise panic.


Fortunately, the new method is not far away.


Neocon-> Business -> Planetary Colonies

This brings up a new window (and yes this is a screen with dummy data from singularity - I don't mind you working out what system I am in, but I am not letting you know what planets I visit)

 

For those that like keyboard shortcuts, hit escape -> Shortcuts-> Window.  Choose Planetary Colonies and edit shortcut

Please remember to set a long skill queue for Tuesday's downtime.

In favour of industry focused releases

A couple of years ago, I left my previous MMO of choice because of a single statement "We want crafters to be out in the world adventuring instead of camping out in front of an auctioneer."

I liked being the crafter standing in front of the auctioneer. Of course in Eve we sit around in either our spaceships or cabins by ourselves instead of shoulder to shoulder with other pilots in an auction room, but the essence is still the same.

In Eve, the market trader, the manufacturer are important parts of the puzzle.  Both games have the farmer, and it was some surprise to me that I joined the farming ranks (PI not mining). There is also the hauler, through spaces of various degrees of danger, both big and small.


Many of us enjoy industry.  Even better, not only have I been shot at and lost my haul, but what I make is important to the end game.  As players, we make ships and modules that are used in the 'end game' battles, we build the POS, Outposts and customs offices used throughout New Eden.  We build the capital ships, some even build supercaps.

Yes, being shot at is important to my enjoyment.  This game engages manufacturers/crafters in a way that I have not seen in any other MMO.  We build 'real stuff', not just a couple of shiny distractions.

I also know that between the current user interface, and mostly safe highsec manufacture is not as engaging as it could be.  For players that enjoy a pretty UI (and many others do even if I am functionally based), the new changes will be wonderful.

Kirith Kodachi stated "The Industry update coming on July 22nd is not going to reverse any numbers".  Maybe.  If everyone talks them down, then certainly.

Crius (and the POS/corp changes to follow) is an opportunity for those of us that enjoy manufacture PVP to spread the word, and to be excited.

Are we going to get everything we want? Certainly not.  Will there be a loud outcry by the losers of the changes? Yes.  Those most comfortable with making things in safely won't be so happy.  Those that can adjust will do fine.

I know and accept that the majority of players are in Eve to directly inflict explosions on others.  There still is a compatible audience of players that like to know the things they build enable others to cause explosions.  Occasionally that ammunition will be returned to us 'slightly used', and that takes some getting used to.

Eve is a sandbox, and a new set of tools is being made available.  Even the most hardened highsec grief corporation should be looking at POS full of blueprints as 'prickly loot pinata'.

I may be idealistically naive, but I see some 'good complexity' with the new release.  It boils down to: Do I place that way too expensive BPO into a POS for a quick job, or keep it in an expensive but safe station? The only possible answer in a public blog is expensive but safe, but for many this will be misleading propaganda.

I know that some of you are only interested in explosions, and then only the ones you see.  The next 2 releases are a way for Eve to capture new players, in a market that it is already a contender.

We already have 'Be the villain' ads.  It is time for us to sell the message "Be the builder in a villainous world"

I want that ship

I like big ships.  The bigger and slower, the more I like them.  This is not always what is rational, nor what is particularly the flavour of the month. 

As was suggested in a previous post, I have recently trained up for a new ship class, with the skills to fly it.  A Kronos.  We have a baby squad booster as squad leader, and we 'wing' warp with my Kronos as wing leader.

T2 fit, over tanked (3 low resists, 1 T2 repairer, 1 ancillery repairer, repair boost rigs). Woo hoo. Nothing can hurt me now.  Nearly cap stable.  Still I am paranoid.  Lost ships hurt.

Van is back from leave, and our C2 issues seem to be resolved. We take on an easier site in our C4.  I am so rusty.  Dual boxing doesn't make me any sharper, but when I can't even find my drone window I just shake my head.

Even with my bumbling we clear the first two phases, everything is doing well.  My only job for my Kronos is to take on the NPC battleships, the T3's will clear smaller stuff. 

And ... I am out of capacitor.  What?  Why? How?  I am not sure.  I was obviously paying insufficient attention, made worse by dual boxing.

I am in bastion mode, another 40 seconds to go.  Mmm.  We make the decision to warp out my Kronos when I can so it can recharge.  Hull damage is not pleasant, but I get of some ancillary repair cycles.  They repair lots.  But I still need to get out of bastion and into warp.  I am not MJD capable, that would have taken slots already used.

I finally get out of bastion, and initiate warp.  Somewhere, anywhere. ...

... I am finally up to speed.

I think.

I am in a pod.

I am still wing leader and not in squad.  Which means no boosts.


Which means I lost an expensive, very large ship, entirely due to stuff-ups:

• Not being boosted, when booster available
• Not watching capacitor
• Not bringing our reserve healing 'agro attractor' (remote cap/rep dominix).

I wanted that ship.  Nice, new, (t2) sparkly, probably teribad fit.

For some, PVE is boring.  I don't do much of it, mostly doing PI to earn my ISK.  But I still have things to learn, new ships to fly.  When PVE gets boring I will stop it.  It's not boring yet.

Oh and for the record.  Our Domi fleet clears that site easy.  The 2 T3's had no problems at all with those battleships.  Afterburner fit meant that they only got glancing blows at best, even when I wasn't paying proper attention.

Unauthorised tower part 2

We have a new tower in our wormhole, and it isn't ours.  First life isn't helping, with both work commitments and getting our kitchen repaired taking priority. 

One more piece of information I check for; PI taxes. If there is evidence of PI tax paid, I will have to talk to them before doing any shooting.  We have good tax rates, and three times had pilots simply move in and pay tax.  Sometimes they asked first, other times they asked later.  If you do find yourself in a Foo wormhole and want to do PI, just let me know.  We don't mind.

I finally get online, to some incredibly pleasant news.  They are taking their tower down.

Whether they scouted and finally found our tower (really - they are not that hard to find), or seeing our defences come online, I do not know.  This tends to rule out invasion as their plans. 

They have started to unanchor their tower.  We have seen an Orca, one that is currently cloaked, as well as flashes of T1 scanning frigates.

We still don't really know what we are up against, but then you never do.  The C2 has pilots, but not our preferred pilots.  Most of my so called skilled pilots are still on their way into the C2, but we have an hour.  The real issue is that the C2's lowsec entrance is about 50 jumps away, and the route via the C2A is via an end of life wormhole.

We decide the lesser of risks is to bring our ships into system rather than wait for the tower to be un-anchored.  To be seen is better than not being here.

So, we are cloaked or deep safed well outside of dscan.  Those cloaked are sitting on grid, but outside minimum warp distance.

The timer expires, and their tower is free for the taking.  I have bloodthirsty pilots who are geared up for a fight, where I would be happy with transient unwelcome guests rather than permanent ones.  "An Orca kill plus a free tower is better than just a free tower" is the comment.  Having friendly wolves is nice.  While I am here for the tower, I accept that wolves need to be fed fresh meat. 

So we wait. Nothing.  While you can uncloak a ship by proximity, you have to be uncloaked yourself to do so.  We wait longer.

After 20 minutes past the timer, even the bloodthirsty can't sniff blood any more.  It looks like we were spotted coming into the wormhole.  A chance we felt we had to take.

We try to fly around where we guess the Orca might have been 20 minutes ago, but cant find it.  The cloaky pilot wasn't even sure where the Orca was.  When I fly cloaked but am suspicious of possibly being spottted, I don't stay still either.   When trying to decloak someone by flying within 2k of them, space is big.  Even with a swarm of pilots and drones.

The bloodthirsty are disappointed, but I am happy.  A 'free' large tower instead of needing to do a POS bash?  I will take that any day.